With Christmas not too far off and me putting aside the books I'm planning to take with me when visiting family, I was reminded of last years holidays which were especially fun because one relative went on and on about how fantasy and sci-fi aren't real literature. This started when another relative gifted me some of Sally Rooney's books so I'd have "something real to read for a change" - they meant it jokingly but it nevertheless started a rant that continued over several days (the entire time we shared a house for the holidays).

I mostly ignored the ranting person, we don't really get along anyways, but we will be sharing a house again this year for a couple of days and I can already feel a continuation of the rant coming and I'm wondering if there's some way to convince them that books written by someone other than Kafka or Murakami can be impactful and that just because something is fantasy or sci-fi doesn't mean it's entirely divorced from reality.

Any of you ever deal with similar situations? How did you handle them? Did you ignore them or argue with them? What arguments did you use?

hi! i just wasn’t sure if anyone knew why there are only four books this winter readalong? my app also shows that to get the sparkly badge you have to read “all 5” but i only see 4. wasn’t sure if it was a bug on my end or not and wanted to ask just to make sure i wasn’t missing anything!

“Once upon a time, the year 2000 to be precise” 😂 loved that opening

I read a lot of epic fantasy and there are a lot of "alternative to curse words" which I assume is to get the point across without dropping the f bomb all the time and lose and possibly lose marketability to some audiences.

So I was wondering what some of people's favorite alternative curses are? Some of mine are...

Mother's milk (wheel of time) Rust and ruin (cosmere) Tigers tits (poppy seed war)

Oh my godfathers pb buddies! I just finished sorting through the largest book donation in the history of my street library! Eleven (11!) boxes guys & I'm talking proper packing boxes, not just banana boxes! I need a cuppa & a lie down after that stint! 😂🤣😂

How do you normally decide or pick on books to read/buy? Example, do you randomly walk to a book store and just pick random books and read their synopsis? Or do you have a list ready and just stick on that? 🤔

What is the most unhinged book you've read in public?

I'm talking something you're embarrassed to have read it in public and try to hide it. I will definitely not be taking recs 👀